1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a massaging apparatus for a portion of the body of a human for alternatingly applying and removing pressure to the human body for the purpose of achieving a soothing comfortable massage and as an aid in increasing blood flow and stretching muscle and connective tissue.
2) Description of the Prior Art
Massaging devices for the human body have long been known. One form of a massaging device that has been utilized in the past uses inflatable bladders. Each inflatable bladder is inflated and deflated to replicate a massaging effect when the inflatable bladder is located against the body of a human. Such inflatable bladder massaging devices have been successful at changing the pressure points under a seated or prone patient and also for the purpose of increasing blood circulation by forcing out the blood from an area of the body and thus allowing the capillaries to refill.
In the past, such inflation and deflation of bladders in conjunction with massaging devices have been deemed to be relatively a slow procedure. It would be desirable to have this inflation and deflation to be more rapid which would increase the overall effect of the massaging apparatus and also increase blood circulation. In the past, these inflating massaging devices have been known to use different sets of inflatable cells. When one set of cells is being inflated, a second set of cells is being deflated. In order to achieve this inflation and deflation of different cells, there has been utilized a separate inflation device with control valves for each group of cells. This has greatly complicated the structure that is utilized and has inherently caused the inflation and deflation of the air cells to be at a slower than optimal rate.
Another disadvantage of such prior art inflation/massaging devices is that each of the inflating and deflating strokes do not necessarily pressurize to precisely the same pressure each and every time. This varying of pressure degrades the overall effect of the massaging device.
A still further disadvantage of prior art inflation/massaging devices is that deflation of a cell is accomplished solely by letting the cell leak into the ambient during non-pressurization of the cell. This deflation is slow usually requiring from several seconds to minutes in time. Inflation and deflation should be rapid (approximately one to two seconds) to achieve the most desirable affects.
The structure of the present invention relates to a massaging device which utilizes a bladder array which includes a series of inflatable bladders. The series of inflatable bladders are divided into a first series and a second series with the first series being inflated when the second series is being deflated, and vice versa. The inflation and deflation is achieved by air being pressurized into one or more bladders during inflation and sucked out of one or more other bladders during deflation. The array may be mounted within a housing which can take numerous forms such as a pad, a flexible wrap or a base member which includes pockets that are to be connectable with a human appendage such as a foot. The inflation device is in the form of an opposed piston assembly which is to be driven by an electric motor, and when the pistons move in one direction, a first series of bladders are inflated and a second series of bladders are deflated. When the piston assembly moves in the opposite direction, the reverse is true. The result is because deflation is occurring in the manner of sucking out the air from the bladders, make rapid inflation and deflation is obtained. The opposed piston design substantially reduces the complexity of the inflation and deflation apparatus. By using two separate opposed piston units there are four pistons with the pistons being located ninety degrees out of phase to even out loading on the motor.
One of the objectives of the present invention is to construct an extremely effective massaging apparatus which utilizes a series of inflatable bladders with the apparatus that is utilized to achieve this inflation and deflation being of simple construction and therefore can be manufactured at a reasonable cost and sold at a reasonable cost to the consumer.
Another objective of the present invention is to use a system for inflation and deflation which achieves rapid inflation and deflation.
Another objective of the present invention is to utilize a simple means to change the pattern of the inflation and deflation procedure within a series of bladders for the purpose of providing a different effect.